A NORTHSIDE project that has been providing media courses in the community for the past 12 years has closed its doors.
The Media Initiative Collective (MIC), based in Darndale, ran courses that helped local people get back into education. Mark Flynn, a coordinator for MIC, said it regrets that it will no longer be providing media courses or support services to the local community.
The MIC project was set up in 2000 as a voluntary arts project, led by Joe Doyle, manager of Darndale Belcamp Resource Centre Ltd, and local residents Mark Flynn and Mick O’Leary.
Initially, it provided music lessons and a portable recording studio for local people. In 2001, MIC received major funding from the North East Drugs Task Force and funding for staff from FAS.
As a result it was able to create a media course with the express aim of getting people back into education.
“To this end we were remarkably successful, with consistently high placement rates each year,
? Mr Flynn told Northside People.
“In recent years most students have been offered and have taken up places in third level education, despite not having completed either a Leaving Cert or Junior Cert. Former MIC project students now find themselves with degrees and jobs, instead of stigma and social welfare.
“They are now in a position to pass on their knowledge to the wider community through their work as graphic designers, filmmakers, photographers, journalists, musicians and sound engineers.
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President Michael D Higgins visited the project in 2012 to mark the 10th anniversary of its official opening and, according to Mr Flynn, he highly commended the work it had done to benefit the local community.